Flat out getting ready for the Slidetoberfest Flat Track

If you haven’t figured it out yet, our Slidetoberfest is all about a weekend of sliding. Both on dirt and on water. From the motor point of view, we’ve been churning up the beach sand for a few years now but it ruts up pretty quickly, and while it’s pretty funny watching people stack in the corners, we really wanted to get our feet onto something a little more solid, some terra firma. We wanted to have a place to put the left foot down, bang on the throttle and wrench it round. Indonesia doesn’t have a Flat Track fraternity yet and with no infrastructure out there, we decided to build one. A Flat Track that is. But what is the point of having a track with no appropriate bikes. We knew full well everyone’s enduros would just make Swiss cheese of any track we made within an hour or two, just as we’d seen with our beach track. It left us with no other choice than to buy some bikes and customise them.

The same day we came to that conclusion, we bought five new Kawasaki KLX 150’s and before any of them had a kilometre on the clock we had striped them bare and began the process of building them back up again.

We needed to remove the enduro rake and nineteens front and back did that nicely. Wide bars to be able to jam the front tire to the right went on. Sure, the geometry of our little KLX’s was a lot smaller than the bikes raced around the rest of the world, but this was Indonesia and we’ve always done it our way anyway. Besides we had an ace up our sleeve, our Bengkel Boys. And once they understood the direction and need for speed, they really began to work their magic. Card was used first to make a template and once the silhouette was refined they traced the shapes upon sheet metal before cutting it out. Grabbing up their tools, which are basic at best, a hammer and a massive block of iron word, they literally began to bash them out. It’s an arduous task hand forming 5 sets of new tanks and tails. Just so you know, you don’t find English wheels in this part of the world.

Superfluous parts were cast aside, sub frames cut and refashioned. The geometry tweaked to make them workable. We were using small bikes and here we were making them shorter. But they are also gnarly, strong and able to produce a punch of power when it’s needed. They might not be what you’d ride at your flat track, but for us, they are exactly what the doctor ordered.

We added a little homage in the paintwork, something for all of the Deus Temples around the world. A nod to each of our 5 countries, Australia, America, Italy, Japan and of course Indonesia.

We thought you’d love to see part of the process of getting us from new to whew. We are not quite yet done, but for the moment, enjoy our journey.

Oh, and if you’re coming up for Slidetoberfest 12th – 15th October, perhaps you might like to buy the Bengkel Boys a beer, they’ve been doing overtime to get these bikes ready and it’s their hard work and perseverance that our Flat Track riders are going to depend on. Let’s also not forget that the gesture would go down a treat.